GUESS WHO MET HER READING GOAL??

(hint: THIS KID.)

BAM.

I FINISHED MY READING CHALLENGE!

Guys. I am so excited that I managed to finish this that it's a little sad. I'm a lifelong reader/bookworm, but since high school I've had a hard time reading books consistently. I gave the challenge a shot last year, but didn't manage to meet even 50% of my goal, due to being overwhelmed with school and stuff. This is the same number/goal as last year, but there are a few key differences:

1. I took an English class. Basically, I had to make time for myself to read, despite my other homework and despite the fact that I thought it would take too long, or that I could catch up. OK, here's the thing: Page goals exist for a REASON. I missed two reading assignments of Jane Eyre and found myself like 200 pages behind the class. So I learned to divide books up. Not only does it make the book less intimidating, but it also ensures that you're always making some sort of progress. (I'm using this system for a fiction book I'm reading for my Botany class, but that's another post.)

2. I read during the summer. I know, that sounds like a serious no-brainer, but this summer I got off the internet and read. 

3. I brought my reading book EVERYWHERE with me, and read in small, ten minute intervals between activities or at lunch. This relates to what I said above, but I made time. And because I made time, I read a book over 600 pages in the span of a month with all of my other activities flying around.*

I'm kind of pleased with what I was able to read this year; And the Band Played On had been on my "to read" list since I had failed to finish it my senior year. Also Jane Eyre, which had been nagging me forever.

I also re-read Wide Sargasso Sea as well as The Sun Also Rises (for my English class), and they both held up really well. I'd still like to write about Sun sometime on this blog, but I worry that that would be too much with little context or guarantee that people had read it before. Y'know? (OK, I had also read The Secret Life of Bees before, but since I didn't take any particular liking to it, I wasn't as excited to re-read it.)

To keep myself from going into a book-by-book replay of this past year (this can't be the end of the year already. Haha, nope, I refuse.), I'm going to leave it at that and just say that, if you want a better version of the graphic above, it's on my goodreads profile. Basically, I'm just really, stupidly happy that I was able to read 25 books in a year because reading takes time, you guys, and when I read book blogs I'm always flabbergasted at how there are new reviews popping up right and left.  IN THE MEAN TIME, I'm going to try to at least finish three more books before the end of the 2013 calendar year.  

A more serious review (pfft, yeah right) should pop up sometime tomorrow.

* I'm sorry. I sound SO smug right now. But I guess I'm trying to get a point across? Anyways, I'm surprised you didn't see me as insufferable before.